It's hard to find better support than Candice at XLAB.
While I do appreciate her support, I had
every single piece of my Torpedo system break or fail except the bolts, straw and bottle. Looking back I really wish I had bought the TriSports BTA (but it didn't exist yet when the first gen Torpedo was released). One of the straps broke, but they moved around a bunch even though it was so tight it pulled my aerobars together. I bought the Profile Design aluminum mounts to replace the straps. The first gen computer mount holder was narrower than a Garmin mount so your Garmin would fall off the side every so often. My 510 looks like it went through a blender at some point, but it still works just fine. XLAB was nice enough to send a wider replacement when it came out, but there's isn't a ride where I don't have to adjust my Garmin/Garmin mount. The bottle cage (the non carbon fiber version) stretched and would launch anything. When a bottle didn't launch, it would at least move forward into your Garmin and knock it around...or off. The 'bite valve' got bitten through after a few uses. Candice offered a replacement. Refilling that bottle on the move isn't great. You might be able to fill it halfway before you start wearing everything else you're putting in. It's way too easy to push the cap/lid all the way through when closing it one handed and then you're really in for a treat. I'll use it for short races where that's all I need for the bike leg. Longer races it's swapped out for normal bottles.
Well darn, it appears the first couple generations of the Torpedo aren't really sold anymore. The 50+ looks like it could have the same problems as before, minus any computer mount stuff.
The new
Torpedo Versas look like a much better option that address many of those issues. The aluminum version looks pretty decent for the money assuming the cage doesn't stretch. I wouldn't use a front end system that doesn't accept regular bottles as well, so I'm still inclined to recommend something along the lines of the Torpedo.
I do like the bottle though if you don't need to refill it. The fin holder works pretty well. If you don't want to shell out the cash for the carbon fiber Torpedo Versa or
TriSports 2.2, I would recommend grabbing the
Profile Design brackets for $10, a good bottle cage with a center opening (Lots of good options.
Bontrager RL comes in LOTS of colors, Zefal Spring is an excellent cage for <$10.), the X-Labs bottle for $45 and whatever computer mount you want for ~$40.
I have seen people use retractable cords or magnets for their straws. Pop them up to drink and let the straw go back out of the way. It's a really quick movement and I haven't had any issues taking drinks out of the torpedo.